Drumroll Please...

MY AWESOME/CRAZY SMART/HARDWORKING/REALLY CUTE HUSBAND MADE THE DEAN'S LIST!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe that's not that big a deal to you all, but he worked his butt off last semester, so it's huge for us. So there.

A lot has been going on, but I don't want to update right now. I have some pictures I need to put up. For the most part we are good. Katelyn is peeing and pooping on the potty all the time now and i want to kiss her face right off. She says some seriously funny stuff all the time and can't wait to see "her baby" in my tummy. I am feeling much better and the nausea only comes in waves now. I go to the doctor in 2 weeks and hopefully will hear the heartbeat. We are excited.

Seriously, though, I will do a real update soon. Just wanted to congratulate my husband. Good job, baby!! We love you.

Boo...

Morning sickness has officially begun.

I am so sick.

I want to die.

Katelyn's Fairy-Tale Stories Vol. 1

:: Before Daddy left for work this morning ::

Katelyn: Wait! Daddy! I have a tell you a story!

Daddy: Okay baby... hurry up, daddy has to leave.

Katelyn: Once upon a time, there was a ghost in gwamma's woom, and it had a go potty. The end. You go bye-bye now.

:: Katelyn runs away to watch 'Handy Manny' ::

Goodbye, Grandma Chicken...

I am feeling a little sad today. And quite nostalgic. My grandma, Henrietta Garber, passed away yesterday. She was 91. Many of you know that for the past 3 weeks she has been in hospice care in our home and I was her primary care giver during the day since my parents both work. I didn't want the responsibility and was quite nervous about it. As the time went by I grew to be grateful for the opportunity to serve her. I was able to be there at her bedside along with my mom, dad, and aunt when she died. It was an amazing experience. I love her very much and can't wait to see her again.

Since I am feeling nostalgic I am going to list my favorite things she always or did. I know most people who read this(which I know isn't many) won't get them, but my family will.

-the title of this blog is "goodbye grandma chicken". We called her that my whole life. When my oldest brother was little he couldn't say Henrietta, so he called her Grandma Hen-Hen. That turned to Grandma Bawk-Bawk and then it eventually evolved into Grandma Chicken. She loved that name. It kind of became her m.o. and she starting collecting chicken and hen decor for her kitchen.

-While I hate them, she loved Boston bull terriers and owned several. The 2 I remember had awesome names- Boots and Pocahontas.

- "I'll knock you into next week..."

-the amazing/ridiculous porcelain baby doll collection.

- When asked how she was doing she would almost always reply " better than I was when I was worse".

-cream soda

-The "hatred" she had for chocolate, yet she always took bites of ours.

-"oh?"

-Buttermilk

-the delicious vitamin c tablets she always had when we were kids. I have never been able to find them. soo good.

-Her "program". (Jeopardy)

I could go on and on. Mostly I will just always remember the fabulous grandma she was to me. She was always faithful and true and I know she and grandpa are continuing to do the Lord's work.

Here is a picture of she and my dad just 2 months ago at my niece and nephews blessing. She is cute.



Love you, Grandma. See you soon.

Happy Mother's Day...

Seana got the best gift of all...














































The countdown to February 2010 begins!

Disneyland 2009 - Return and Report Vol. 2: Our Weekend Starts On Wednesday

Hello Kinderfriends!

Seana has threatened to disembowel me with a "The Hills: Season 1" DVD if I didn't finish the job and complete the Return and Report series as it relates to Disneyland... so, as an attempt to avoid having to try and pull shattered parts of Spencer's creepy, flesh-colored beard out of my abdomen, I figured I should respect her wishes and bring you...

The awesome...

IIIThe amazing...

DAY TWO OF DISNEYLAND~!!!

(cue fanfare)

I SAID CUE FANFARE!

That's better.

Now that we're all in the mood, let's talk a little about Disneyland, shall we? Wednesday started out much like Tuesday, except we left the hotel about 20 minutes EARLIER to arrive at the park that much earlier. Because of this, we got a decent place in line.

Now, you may be asking yourself "Jay, why in the world would you possibly need to get to the park that early?" And I would answer you: The Nemo Submarine, of course.

You see, the Nemo Submarine isn't any regular old run-of-the-mill crapperware ride, oh no no. It is apparently the greatest ride in the history of man, judging by the constant lines (a minimum 60-90 minute wait) that were seen from open to close. Now, we had wanted to ride Nemo's Submarine, but didn't want to wait in line... what were we to do?

Oh wait!

Do you guys remember when I told you about RideMax?? Well, we did. We told RideMax we wanted to ride Nemo's Submarine, and so it told us we should make it the very first ride we do when we got into the park. Here's where the astonishing part comes in:

People run to rides at Disneyland.

Seriously.

And we're not talking a "Hey, I'm trying to catch the city bus" run, we're talking an Olympic-level sprint to rides.

Hey, Usain, how was Space Mountain??

I must stress this as much as humanly possible: I did not run to Nemo’s Submarine. I am a self-respecting person who doesn’t like to look like a giant moron. I was also on my vacation, and I’d be damned if I was going to run on my vacation. This concerned Seana... after all, our entire schedule relied upon getting onto Nemo’s Submarine in its first run, because we had other, bigger plans for the day. So, as soon as I got into the park, I made a bee-line for Fantasyland... and I was getting passed by people doing their ultimate Michael Johnson impression. But I stuck to my guns and calmly walked.

I must report to you, there is no better feeling than the one I got when I calmly walked up behind the first person in line, who was already sweaty and red-faced from his exhilarating sprint from the gate to Nemo.

The ride itself wasn't awful... kind of cramped and a little loud. But Kate liked it, and that's all that matters.

He's looking for his refund.

After Nemo, we rode Autopia... Katelyn is a terrible driver, by the way.


And then, we headed to ToonTown, where Katelyn got to meet a hero:

Kate and Minnie Mouse

But the highlight of the entire day was no doubt the Princess Lunch. For the uninitiated, the Princess Lunch is in Ariel's Grotto, at California Adventures. For about $30 a person (ouch) you get to go have lunch as 5 of the Disney Princesses walk around and do a meet, greet and photo with the kids at the table.

Since the party was at Ariel's House, we got to meet her first:


Unbeknown to us, we were selected to be the "Guest Family" of the meal, which meant we got to go up in front of the room and announce the first of the Princesses... she got a kick out of that, and, I'm sure, thought that everyone was there to see her, and not the Princesses.

Belle was the Princess we announced:

Then we met Snow White:

Princess Kate didn't feel like leaving her throne... the Cheese Shells and Goldfish were too good.

Then Cinderella:

Kate thought it was hilarious that they had the same dress

And Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty):

Katelyn's waving to me in this picture, as Sleeping Beauty told her to say "Hi, Daddy"

After the Princess Lunch, Katelyn was having sensory overload, so we decided to go back to the hotel (2 block walk!) for a rest. We came back to the park later to ride Jungle Cruise and afterward, this happened:

So, the second day ended much like the first, and a tuckered out Katelyn slept back to the hotel.

Bye-Bye friends.

Disneyland 2009 - Return and Report Vol. 1: Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday.

"There is stupidity, there is insanity, there is complete and total disregard for ones mental health... and then there is Disneyland with a toddler"

- Ancient Jay Aivaz Proverb

Okay, so the above isn't exactly ancient... in fact, I just wrote it at... but it IS a proverb, and I'm sticking by that. It does, though, speak to a broader point: Disneyland is CRAZY, and if you dare to do it with a child... well, you're crazy too.

Hello, my name is Jay, and I'll be your tour guide over the next few days worth of blog updates regarding the Aivaz Disneyland 2009 trip.

Monday started early for us. Very early. About 6:00 a.m., actually. We all got up, got dressed, showered and fed and began our trek (walking OMH!) to the Park. It actually wasn't that bad... literally a 2-block walk... easily done in about 10 minutes. We got out of our room at 7:30 and arrived to the park at about 7:40. Getting our tickets took 10 minutes and we were at the gates at 7:50. As I was going through the pictures, I discovered something interesting: Katelyn is bi-polar. The below picture was taken at 7:52 a.m.

Katelyn is happy and ready for an exciting day of fun.

The following picture was taken at 7:55 a.m., 3 minutes after the above.

Katelyn is crying and pouting and ready to go home.

This was before we even got into the park. HOWEVER, when we did get in... we were not alone. It's like Disneyland sent out invites to their party and told everyone that there would be Twinkie Casserole for everyone.

However, all the complaining about crowds and cost and noise etc. goes right out the window when you see THIS...


...the look on your daughter's face when she sees Pinocchio up close and personal for the first time in her life.

This isn't to say that the entire day went off without a hitch; I've been to Disneyland a few times, and personally, I had never seen it as busy as it was today... there were people EVERYWHERE (Though I expect going to Disneyland expecting no crowds is like watching Twilight and expecting believeable or even passable acting) and in the afternoon we were all hot and hungry and tired. This is where living literally 2 blocks away really helps. We left Disney at 1:30 and came back to the hotel to regroup. Seana caught a nice nap while Katelyn and I unwound, grabbed some snacks and played. At 4 o'clock, we headed back to the park to finish up our plan.

THAT REMINDS ME!

A couple weeks before we left, Seana found this nifty little program called "Ridemax". What Ridemax does is use historical data about park attendance, line waits, etc. and it prepares a completely detailed, infinitely customizeable "game plan", giving you the optimal ride schedule to wait for the least amount of time possible for your Disney park visit from info like which rides you want to ride, when you want to arrive to and flee from the park, and even includes "free time" and any breaks that you request. Anywho, we decided that we would do all the possible Fantasyland rides in the morning and the New Orleans Square rides at night. We seriously rode every single Fantasyland ride between the hours of 8-11, with the longest wait being 20 minutes at Peter Pan. After lunch, an unscheduled visit (and 45-minute wait) to Pixie Hollow, our break and dinner, we were able to ride Matterhorn, Pirates and Haunted Mansion in 1 hour, with the 15-minute wait at Matterhorn being the longest. At the risk of sounding like Vince from Shamwow (minus the "tongue-kissing women of ill-repute" part) I HIGHLY (so highly that I put it in all caps!) suggest Ridemax for anyone considering a Disney trip. It's $15 dollars for a 3-month subscription and only $25 for a year-long one... a price well worth something that enables you to see everything you want to see without all that pesky waiting that goes on in Disneyland. Go to www.ridemax.com or click here to check it out for yourself.

The highlight of the day by far, however, was Katelyn's trip to Pixie Hollow. A 45-minute wait, being surrounded by obnoxious kids (including your own) while standing in the sun, whilst in the middle of a line and being bombarded by horrible fairy music would normally be a deal-breaker for me, but Seana and I kind of had to subject ourselves to that punishment knowing what lay inside of the "Hollow". Disclaimer: Katelyn loves Tinker Bell to a degree not yet seen in other normal toddlers and the joy on her face is only a smidegon of the actual intensity of the euphoria that swept across her as she entered the Hollow.

First, she met Tinker Bell's friend, Rosetta


But nothing could prepare her for what came next...


A face-to-face meeting with her "pavit", Tinker Bell.

I don't know if she thought we were lying to her or what, but Katelyn acted totally shocked to see Tink there. She froze up when she turned the corner and Tink was standing there. After a couple seconds, Katelyn squealed and ran directly to Tink, dropping her pen and autograph book in the process. Tink was so nice and cordial, even though she'd no doubt seen possibly hundreds of kids up to that point.

Note Kate's hand placement... I'd get kicked out if I tried pulling that crap.

All-in-all, today was a huge success... the meltdowns and tantrums and accidents were so seriously outweighed by the shouts and laughs and hugs and kisses that I can hardly remember the negatives.

But the best part about Disneyland??

It is more potent and effective than the highest-grade elephant tranquilizer... as I type this, Katelyn is fast asleep in her Pack 'n' Play.

Well, that's all for Disney Day 1. Stay tuned for more (hopefully shorter) updates!

- Jay